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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Common Genetic Variation Linked to Substantial Risk
of Heart Attack
Doubles chance of heart attack for men under 50,
women before 60
 May
7, 2007 - Researchers have found a common genetic variation
in those of European descent on chromosome 9p21 that may be responsible for 21 percent of heart
attacks and 31 percent of early attacks occurring in men under 50 and
women under 60. This means that were the gene variant not present, there
would potentially be 21% fewer heart attacks and 31% fewer early onset
heart attacks.
Approximately 21 percent of individuals of European
descent carry two copies of the genetic variation (one from each
parent), found on chromosome 9p21. They have a 1.64-fold greater risk of
suffering a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and a 2.02 greater
chance of suffering a heart attack early in life (men before 50, women
before age) than those without the variation.
The study led by deCODE Genetics uncovered the
first common variant found to be consistently linked to substantial risk
of heart attack in multiple case-control groups of European descent.
The research project was led by the Icelandic
genomics company deCODE Genetics, along with U.S. researchers at Emory
University School of Medicine, Duke University, and the University of
Pennsylvania.
The findings are published today in the online
edition of Science, and will appear in an upcoming printed edition of
the journal.
"The gene variant we have linked to heart attack
points us to a major biological mechanism that substantially increases
the risk," explains Emory cardiologist Arshed A. Quyyumi, MD, one of the
study authors.
"Discoveries like this one greatly heighten our
understanding of the role genetics plays in heart disease."
Other Emory researchers involved in the study were
Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, professor of medicine (cardiology) and Allan
I. Levey MD, PhD, professor and chair of neurology.
Investigators enrolled 4,587 patients over the last
eight years who suffered myocardial infarctions, along with 12,769
control individuals. The study participants in Atlanta were enrolled at
Emory University Hospital, The Emory Clinic and Grady Memorial Hospital
through the Emory Genebank study and the Clinical Registry in Neurology.
The Emory Genebank studies the association of biochemical and genetic
factors to coronary artery disease in subjects undergoing cardiac
catheterization.
Myocardial infarction is the death of heart tissue
that results when the blood supply to the heart is cut off. It is the
leading cause of death in the industrialized world. Nearly half of men
and one-third of women who reach the age of 40 will suffer a heart
attack in their lifetime.
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